Why has my electric bill doubled for August?

Question

Yes rates went up a little, nothing major, however this months bill has over doubled. They said I used almost 3000KWH. We keep our AC set at 81 deg to keep cost down. We mostly cook on the grill during the summer, no over use. We keep our coils cleaned on our fridge monthly. Keep our filters changed often. Changed them 3 times just since January. Have plastic and foil on windows. In 5 years of living in this town, we have never used more than 1500 kwh per month. I checked our meter at it reads 9500. Which means in 2 weeks time we have only used about 600 kwh. So in another 2 wks if it's the same average, we should be right on track like before. We do everything to keep a low mantenance home. Someone suggested to have the electric company come out and check the meter and calibrate it, but it's a new meter. They gave the whole town new meters over the past 6 months. I'm just so stumped. The only thing I haven't check is the water heater. Could a bad therm/ or leak (which I don't see) on a water heater really cause an electric bill to double? I mean last month we only used 780 kwh. Thats how much we concerve. Please any advice would be greatly appreciated. I can't keep affording this. Also, how do you approach a crabby lazy landlord to fix a water heater if that's the problem. He already threaten to kick us out once because a window was leaking water. Can you say slum lord, lol. No seriously, I like the guy but he doesn't like to fix things. Oh I hate this, I will shut up and just hope for some advice on things I can check. Oh one more thing. We limit our dryer usage and we keep the trap and everything cleaned on that as well. We actual bought a special part to our vacuum to keep it clean.

Answer 1

Where do you live? I would assume your rates have gone up as have most everyone's rates have increased with the higher energy costs.

I read that Texas went from some of the lowest electrical rates to one of the highest because they use so much oil for generation.

The 3k usage is wrong for some reason. If you were on a payment plan that gives you a consistent payment through the year they do a correction on those once a year. It could be that.

But the people that need to explain it is the power company.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

i think the electric company is ripping you off.

Answer 3

Does the number on the meter read less than the number on the bill?If so call the elec. co. If not then the elec. co could have been estimating your bills for the last few months and are playing catch up now.Also fuel charges were higher in aug. plus it was hot in most places.